150 Iraqi Kurdish Fighters Heading to Kobani

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today reported that a deal has been reached that will see 200 Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters allowed to travel through Turkey to enter the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, under siege by ISIS. The Peshmerga reported only 150 are coming.

The Peshmerga also denied that the deal was finalized, saying that the talks are still ongoing on the details of how the troops would be allowed through and the exact numbers.

It’s hard to imagine how 150 or even 200 Peshmerga will be a game-changer with reports of around 2,000 Kurdish militia fighters already in and around Kobani, but Erdogan insisted they’ll be allowed to take heavier weapons than what the existing fighters have.

It’s unclear what that even means, however, as US warplanes were dropping grenade launchers and other heavy arms to the Kurdish militias earlier this week, and “most” of those weapons managed to not get intercepted by ISIS.

Yet with no timetable for the troops arriving, and ISIS reinforcements much closer and moving into the area all the time, it seems like the advantage is still with the attackers, and the Kurds are just holding on.

Author: Jason Ditz

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Free Syrian army to send military aid to Kobane
Militants from Kurdish Democratic Union Party have agreed to accept 1,300 Free Syrian Army troops in Kobane to fight IS
The group, the main opposition armed group battling Syrian President Bashar al Assad, will send troops to the town to aid in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), according to a written statement by the group's operating unit in Aleppo…
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Syrian Kurdish militants from Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have agreed to accept 1,300 Free Syrian Army troops in Kobane…
"We clearly said that our approach is very positive toward the Free Syrian Army's fighting in Syria," Erdogan said. "We always said that they were our first preference in Syria, and that the second preference is the peshmerga." http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/free-syrian-arm…